Theater of Blood (1973)

(On TV, May 2021) On paper, Theater of Blood sounds much better than it feels on a moment-by-moment basis. Featuring none other than Vincent Price as a serious Shakespearian actor taking murderous revenge over his reviewers, it sounds like a great excuse as a fun romp: You get Price doing Shakespeare (even in small segments) and a fantasy sequence showing what filmmakers would really like to do to those pesky critics. In execution, though, Theater of Blood proves to be more laborious and less interesting than expected. As usual whenever filmmakers have to talk about reviewers, they’re portrayed as caricatural antagonists with no depth other than opposing our viewpoint character. Much of the narrative structure anticipates the slasher craze of later years, as director Douglas Hickox goes from one murderous set-piece to another, each critic getting a gory death along the way. There are a few welcome complications along the way, but much of it feels muted, far from achieving its own potential. Price is delightful as ever, but Theater of Blood itself feels like a missed opportunity… and I’m not just saying that because I’m a reviewer.